Newsletter

Mary Grace Heath stops to take a photo with Walter, Sam, Jamil when they go into town to buy a soda in Jinja, Africa. Walter, Sam and Jamil live at Ekisa, an orphanage that takes in children with physical and mental disabilities.

The women’s ministry team at Athens First United Methodist Church will continue its work to help Ekisa, a special-needs orphanage in Uganda, during its consignment sale fundraiser today and Saturday at the church.

Ekisa opened in February 2011 and has since taken in 16 disabled orphans. The current capacity at Ekisa is 20 children, but the orphanage hopes to build on to its current facility in the future to accommodate more children and have a separate house for older children.

“We wanted to create a vehicle that allowed as many women as possible an opportunity to be a part of missions to Uganda — to have a hands-on experience they knew would bless a child half a world away. Women have donated, consigned and volunteered,” said Julie Caldwell, who helps lead the women’s ministry.

“We also wanted to raise awareness for Ekisa in hopes that others would be moved to support them.”

The women at Athens First chose to support Ekisa when it began planning its 2012-13 year and realized the previous year had been inwardly-focused and contained a lot of good events and lessons but nothing that included service or missions. As the team’s leadership began to structure a cohesive year around service and missions, several things came together that resulted in a year of focusing on Uganda, Africa.

After several requests, the women’s ministry planned a book study on “Kisses from Katie” by Katie Davis, a moving account of a young girl’s call to mission work in Uganda. Athens First also had spent the past few years putting together a team of people to effectively serve children with special needs and felt that Ekisa was a place God was leading them to serve.

During this time, church member Mary Grace Heath also was gearing up to leave for a three month mission trip at Ekisa,

Heath said she’d had a passion for Africa since she was a child, and as she got older she developed a desire to travel to the country and experience the culture. She’d also developed a desire to help children with special needs and when she learned about Ekisa from a friend said she felt led to travel to the country and help the children in the orphanage.

Over the three and a half months she was there, Heath did everything from feeding children who could not feed themselves to setting up school stations for children who needed sensory learning activities to sitting up all night with children that had feeding tubes.

The children’s mental and physical disabilities were not a surprise to her she said, but what did surprise her was finding out how the children ended up in the orphanage in the first place.

“A lot of people think they are cursed so the children get thrown out on the street or they bring them to the gates of Ekisa and ask them to take their child,” Heath said. “That was really hard to see.”

Staff and volunteers won’t take in every child brought to Ekisa, but instead work to try to teach the families how to raise a child with special needs and keep the family together.

“If there’s a possibility for us to teach them how to take care of their child then we are going to,” Heath said.

When families refuse, Ekisa takes the child and does their best to care for their needs and help them learn skills or get an education.

Despite the fact that the children are unwanted and live in difficult conditions, Heath said she learned they still have a big heart for the Lord and for people.

“They’re so happy and joyful with what they have and who they are, and they are confident with who they are,” Heath said. “They taught me to be more confident within myself and to love other people no matter what. They also taught me that life is hard and you need to find the beauty in things.”

While Heath was at Ekisa, church members Tammy Lindsay and Kaki Heath traveled to visit her and researched what the greatest needs at Ekisa were so the women’s ministry would know how to help.

The duo made a video to share with the rest of the group when it returned, and Caldwell said one interview in particular stuck with her and encouraged her when the consignment sale felt like too big of a project to take on.

“The nurse in the video was explaining how some children come to be orphans and told the story of a child who had been abandoned at the local hospital because there was no way her parents would be able to pay the bill and get their child back. I was expecting a bill of tens of thousands of dollars, but the amount of the bill was $8,” she said. “A child was orphaned because of $8. The nurse was conveying to us how much good Ekisa could do with money given to their medical fund. Not only could they cover the extensive medical costs of the children at Ekisa, they could also keep families in the community together. My invitation to the community is to come and shop at the consignment sale because an $8 purchase could completely change the course of a family’s life half a world away.”

During the sale, shoppers will be able to buy gently used fall and winter clothes for boys and girls in sizes 3 months to age 16. Toy, books, DVDs, bedding, miscellaneous baby and child supplies also will be for sale, in addition to baby and children’s furniture, bouncy seats, swings, pack and plays, strollers and maternity clothes.

All items are in good condition and will be displayed in a clear and manageable way.

Parking is available in the church parking lot, two lots on Hancock Avenue next to the church and surrounding parking decks.

“We will have people on hand to help shoppers get their items to the cars or wait with their items while the shoppers drive around to the church to get them,” Caldwell said.

Heath said the funds raised through the consignment sale will be used to pay rent on the facility the orphanage is in and to pay medical and utility bills so it can continue to house the children the orphanage cares for.

“It’s helpful because (Ekisa) is a nonprofit, and donations are their income for the orphanage. Anything will help,” Heath said. “They are growing, and there are a lot more kids there now than when I was there last year. They just need help to take care of all of them and pay for what they need.”

For more information about Ekisa, visit www.ekisa.org.

For more information about the consignment sale, visit www.athensfirstumc.org/childrensconsignmentsale.

Children's Consignment Sale4 to 8 p.m. today and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. SaturdayAthens First United Methodist Church, 327 N. Lumpkin St.All proceeds from the sale will benefit Ekisa, a special needs orphanage in Uganda, Africa.For more information about Ekisa, visit www.ekisa.org.For more information about the consignment sale, visit www.athensfirstumc.org/childrensconsignmentsale.